Compete.

February 1, 2018

Here’s a short little bit of advice for you folks out there newer to the sport. If you’ve been competing in weightlifting for less than 4-5 years, I suggest you get out there and compete more often than you probably are.

Young Clara and myself at the first Occam meet held at Crossfit Another Level in 2015.

COMPETE.

I suggest that all my newer lifters compete around 6 times per year. Too many times have I let a newbie lifter who happens to advance quickly in skills start to act like a seasoned competitor and compete only 1-3x per year. Guess what happens: Their expectations are never met and they get way too emo about an activity that they’ve chosen to specialize in for a relatively short amount of time and eventually quit.

Whenever someone walks into my gym, I don’t see them. I see where I want them to be in several years; Several years as in MORE THAN SEVEN. It took me 5 years to get to my first National Championship and American Open. When I Identify someone with talent, I usually let them know what is a reasonable timeline to expect to get to get to that level and it’s usually less than 5. However, just because you advance to that level sooner rather than later doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay your dues. It doesn’t mean that you’re a seasoned lifter. In fact it doesn’t prove that you know anything.

Unrelated photo of me holding a book thus proving I know something. This is in one of my favorite cities, Savannah GA.

Go get experience. Go have fun. Go participate in the sport that you claim you’re all about. Every meet you do, you will learn something new; I promise you. Handling yourself in a contest setting is a skill unto itself. Yes, eventually you and your coach will need to be more selective in which contests you do and which ones you will and will not prepare for. To try to remain in peak contest shape with no regard to actual strength building is just as bad and I’m not suggesting that. But don’t let me catch you polluting the internet with a bunch of instagram videos of you lifting weights if you won’t fork over the 40 bucks to sign up for a local meet and support your weightlifting scene and y’know . . . actually be a weightlifter.

Instagram videos don’t mean dick. Likes on your PR hang snatch double video don’t mean dick. Most importantly showing up to weightlifting practice every day DOESN’T MEAN DICK unless you actually go apply what you learn in a new and unique environment. To do so would be analogous to someone who spends 6 days a week at the batting cages, has never once played a game of baseball and claims that they are a baseball player.